npr

Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday.Leo Correa/APhide caption

The war between Israel and Iran began its ninth day Saturday as the two countries continued to trade missile attacks, and Iran's foreign minister warned against the U.S. getting actively involved.

Iran says Israel struck four cities overnight, including Isfahan, where a nuclear site was hit. Iranian authorities said there was no leak of hazardous materials, according to the country's state media. The Israeli military confirmed it targeted centrifuge production facilities there, as part of its attempts to destroy Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iranian media also said Israeli strikes killedfive membersof Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

The fighting came after Iranian officials had engaged indiplomatic meetingsin Geneva, New York and Istanbul on Friday, which failed to produce any breakthroughs, even as President Trump considers whether to join Israel in launching an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Speaking Saturday in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned against any active U.S. military involvement in the conflict. "I think that it would be very, very dangerous for everyone," he said.

On Friday in Geneva, Araghchi told his French, German and British counterparts that he was open to further discussions but would not negotiate with the United States while Israel continued to attack Iran.

Meanwhile, the human toll of the conflict continued to rise.

Iran's Health Ministry now reports 430 civilians have been killed and more than 3,000 injured since the Israeli strikes began on June 13, according toIranian state media. But an independent group called theHuman Rights Activists News Agencysays it has counted 722 total fatalities in Iran, including nearly 200 military personnel killed, based on nongovernmental sources.

Iranian strikes have killed 24 people and injured more than 1,000 in Israel since the start of Iran's retaliation, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

Iranian missiles hit Israel's port city of Haifa on Friday, according to the Israeli military. It said there was no major damage from further strikes fired at Israel Saturday.

After announcing Thursday he would decide "within two weeks" whether to strike Iran, President Trump on Friday emphasized that "two weeks would be a maximum."

Meanwhile, officials from member countries of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have been meeting in Istanbul and discussing the conflict and the potential fallout from a widening war.

NPR's Jane Arraf contributed reporting from Amman, Jordan.

A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on June 20, 2024. On Friday, a panel of federal appellate judges ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in the state's public school classrooms is unconstitutional.John Bazemore/APhide caption

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of three federal appellate judges has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in each of the state's public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

The ruling Friday marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the mandate violates the separation of church and state, and that the poster-sized displays would isolate students — especially those who are not Christian.

The mandate has been touted by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, and marks one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. Backers of the law argue the Ten Commandments belong in classrooms because they are historical and part of the foundation of U.S. law.

"This is a resounding victory for the separation of church and state and public education," said Heather L. Weaver, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "With today's ruling, the Fifth Circuit has held Louisiana accountable to a core constitutional promise: Public schools are not Sunday schools, and they must welcome all students, regardless of faith."

The plaintiffs' attorneys and Louisiana disagreed on whether the appeals court's decision applied to every public school district in the state or only the districts party to the lawsuit.

"All school districts in the state are bound to comply with the U.S. Constitution," said Liz Hayes, a spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs.

The appeals court's rulings "interpret the law for all of Louisiana," Hayes added. "Thus, all school districts must abide by this decision and should not post the Ten Commandments in their classrooms."

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she disagreed and believed the ruling only applied to school districts in the five parishes that were party to the lawsuit. Murrill added that she would appeal the ruling, including taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

The panel of judges reviewing the case was unusually liberal for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a court with more than twice as many Republican-appointed judges, two of the three judges involved in the ruling were appointed by Democratic presidents.

The court's ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last year by parents of Louisiana school children from various religious backgrounds, who said the law violates First Amendment language guaranteeing religious liberty and forbidding government establishment of religion.

The ruling also backs an order issued last fall by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, who declared the mandate unconstitutional and ordered state education officials not to enforce it and to notify all local school boards in the state of his decision.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the mandate into law last June.

Landry said in a statement Friday that he supports the attorney general's plans to appeal.

"The Ten Commandments are the foundation of our laws — serving both an educational and historical purpose in our classrooms," Landry said.

Law experts have long said they expect the Louisiana case to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the court on the issue of religion and government.

Similar laws have been challenged in court.

A group of Arkansas families filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month challenging a near-identical law passed in their state. And comparable legislation in Texas currently awaits Gov. Greg Abbott's signature.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can "make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The court found that the law had no secular purpose but served a plainly religious purpose.

And in 2005, the Supreme Court held that such displays in a pair of Kentucky courthouses violated the Constitution. At the same time, the court upheld a Ten Commandments marker on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin.

The photo exhibitSahy Rano, on display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York, through this weekend, draws its title from a Malagasay phrase translated in a wall label as meaning "someone who is not afraid to dive into the water, even if there is a strong current." The photographer wants to bring attention to female genital schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by a waterborne parasitic infection, whose symptoms can be stigmatizing because they resemble symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. From left to right: former patients Rahama Abdallah, Sylvia Razanaparana and Suzanie Yolandrie. They were photographed in September 2024 in the district of Ambanja in Northern Madagascar.Miora Rajaonary/The End Fundhide caption

A woman named Sylvia Razanaparana, robed in a white dress atop a marine blue shirt, faces the camera with a blue bucket atop her head. The backdrop is sea blue canvas dotted with drops of white. Her hand propped on her hip, she stares at the camera at a three-quarter angle, as if she has something to show, or say.

She is one of eight women who posed for photographer Miora Rajaonary for a project to raise awareness of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), a disease that, according to the World Health Organization, afflicts an estimated 56 million women and girls, mainly in Africa.

The waterborne infection is spread by parasitic worms and is found particularly in areas with limited access to clean water and health care.  It is contracted through contact with infected water in which women work (such as rice fields), bathe and do laundry. Considered by the United Nations as one of the most neglected of tropical diseases, it can result in infertility, ectopic pregnancy and genital ulcers. And because its symptoms — including vaginal itchiness and discharge, bloody urine and abdominal and pelvic pain — can resemble those of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), their onset can bring suspicion, shame and dishonor on those who contract them.

Areport by the U.N. agency UNAIDScharacterizes the disease as "underdiagnosed, with grave implications for women's sexual and reproductive health." It is also linked to a higher risk for contracting HIV from an infected partner.

Men can contract the disease as well but a WHO report notes that"the clinical signs and complications are much more prevalent in women."

A portrait of Sylvia Suzanie Razanparana. When she first suffered symptoms from female genital schistosomiasis, which resemble the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, her husband accused her of betraying him and left her.Miora Rajaonary/The End Fundhide caption

Razanaparana contracted FGSwhile working in the rice fields of Ambanja, in northern Madagascar. Her husband accused her of betraying him because of the STD-like symptoms and left her. Only after suffering from the symptoms for four years was she able to be seen by a doctor, visiting her village as part of a medical mission. He quickly diagnosed her, and the deworming medicine praziquantel cured her.

Her story spoke powerfully to Rajaonary, who has included her portrait in her photo exhibitSahy Rano, currently on display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York. The title is a Malagasay phrase translated in a wall label as meaning "someone who is not afraid to dive into the water, even if there is a strong current." It also also means "someone is really brave," adds Rajaonary, who is herself from Madagascar. Her work was supported by the End Fund, a philanthropy that works to prevent the spread of neglected tropical diseases

A portrait of Julie Moanariziky, who had contracted female genital schistosomiasis. The photographer posed her in front of a canvas painted blue, to symbolize water, with white dots representing the parasitic worms that spread the infection.Miora Rajaonary/The End Fundhide caption

The title of the project, says the photographer, is especially apt because some of the women, like Razanaparana, work in the rice fields "so they have to be in the water for their livelihoods. They have no choice but to keep going back" returning to the very waters where they were initially infected.

To further emphasize their courage in breaking taboos and coming forward to speak about the disease in public, the women portrayed wear traditional Malagasy face masks. Made of cosmetic paste and ground sandalwood, they are both decorative and used to protect the skin. In adorning themselves with beauty masks, they are showing they are like everyone else, with no need to hide. "I sometimes wear a mask when I am on holiday in Madagascar," Rajaonary says. They are very attractive. This is a tradition over centuries."

A portrait of Asna Stina, a former FGS patient, and her mother, Edwige Rasoatiana, who is a health worker.Miora Rajaonary/The End Fundhide caption

The effect of the painted backdrop, prepared by Rajaonary, is that the women appear to be standing against, or sitting in the water. The white dots, she says, are symbols of the parasites that infest local waters.

She also set up a laundry rope across the canvas backdrop, from which hang the women's shirts, sheets, dresses and clothing — as if the clothing had just been put up to dry after being washed in the contaminated water. "This is their clothing, their laundry, what they wear and how they live," she said.

The colorful pails and buckets visible in each photo also call attention to water's inescapable presence in the women's lives.

Diane Cole writes for many publications, includingThe Wall Street JournalandThe Washington Post.She is the author of the memoirAfter Great Pain: A New Life Emerges.Her website isDianeJoyceCole.com

RIO DE JANEIRO — A hot-air balloon caught fire and tumbled from the sky on Saturday in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight people, firefighters said.

Footage shared by local news outlet G1 showed billows of smoke coming from the balloon in flames as it hurtled toward the ground in the municipality of Praia Grande.

On a video on social media, two people can be seen falling through the air as the fire spread onboard the aircraft.

Three people died hugging each other, said Ulisses Gabriel, chief of Santa Catarina's civil police force, on X. "It hurts the soul."

Thirteen people survived and were taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina's military fire brigade said, adding that 21 people were on board including the pilot.

"We are in mourning. A tragedy has happened. We will see how it unfolds, what happened, why it happened. But the important thing now is for the state structure to do what it can," Gov. Jorginho Mello said in a video on X.

Mello said he has asked authorities to head to the municipality "to do as much as possible to rescue, to help, to take to hospital, to comfort the families."

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his solidarity with victims' families and said he was placing the federal government at the disposal of victims and local authorities.

"According to the pilot, who is one of the survivors, a fire started inside the basket and then he began to lower the balloon. When the balloon was very close to the ground, he ordered people to jump out of the basket," Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Praia Grande head police officer Tiago Luiz Lemos as saying.

"Some of them didn't manage to jump. The fire increased and the balloon ended up falling," Lemos added.

G1 reported that the balloon's expected flight time was 45 minutes, with the balloon reaching 1000 meters, and cost 550 reais (around $100) per passenger.

Sobrevoar, the company responsible for the multi-colored balloon, said it complied with all regulations and had a clean accident record prior to Saturday.

"Despite all necessary precautions and the efforts of our pilot — who has extensive experience and followed all recommended procedures in an attempt to save everyone on board the balloon — we are suffering from the pain caused by this tragedy," it said in a statement.

Sobrevoar added that it was suspending all operations for an indefinite period.

Praia Grande is a common destination for hot-air ballooning, a popular activity in parts of southern Brazil.

Last Sunday, a balloon came down in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old woman and injuring 11 other people, G1 reported.

Omar al-Hobi, 43, from Rafah, carries a bag of food he collected at a distribution center run by private contractor the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the southern Gaza Strip, as he arrives at his tent in Khan Younis, on June 10.Abdel Kareem Hana/APhide caption

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Each day, Palestinians in Gaza run a deadly gantlet in hopes of getting food. Israeli troops open barrages of gunfire toward crowds crossing military zones to get to the aid, they say, and knife-wielding thieves wait to ambush those who succeed. Palestinians say lawlessness is growing as they are forced into a competition to feed their families.

A lucky few manage to secure some packets of lentils, a jar of Nutella or a bag of flour. Many return empty-handed and must attempt the ordeal again the next day.

"This isn't aid. It's humiliation. It's death," said Jamil Atili, his face shining with sweat as he made his way back last week from a food center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed private contractor. He had suffered a knife cut across his cheek amid the scramble for food and said a contractor guard pepper-sprayed him in the face. Still, he emerged with nothing for his 13 family members.

"I have nothing to feed my children," he said, nearly crying. "My heart is broken."

Israel began allowing food into Gaza this past month after cutting it off completely for 10 weeks, though United Nations officials say it is not enough to stave off starvation. Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates four food distribution points inside Israeli military zones. A trickle of aid goes to the U.N. and humanitarian groups.

Both systems are mired in chaos. Daily gunfire by Israeli troops toward crowds on the roads heading to the GHF centers has killed several hundred people and wounded hundreds more in past weeks, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

At the same time, in past weeks, hungry crowds overwhelm most of the U.N.'s truck convoys and strip away the supplies. Israeli troops have opened fire to disperse crowds waiting for trucks near military zones, witnesses say — and on Tuesday, more than 50 people were killed, according to the ministry. The Israeli military says it is investigating.

"I don't see how it can get any worse, because it is already apocalyptic. But somehow it does get worse," said Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian affairs office.

Israel says it has only fired warning shots at suspects who approached its forces along the roads to the GHF food centers.

Palestinian witnesses say the troops fire to prevent crowds from moving past a certain point before the centers open or because people leave the road designated by the military. They describe heavy barrages from tanks, snipers, drones and even guns mounted on cranes.

Asked how its soldiers control movement, the military told The Associated Press its "operational conduct … is accompanied by systematic learning processes." It said it was looking into safety measures like fences and road signs.

GHF says no shootings have taken place in or near its hubs. A spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity under GHF rules, said incidents take place before sites open involving aid-seekers who move "during prohibited times … or trying to take a short cut." They said GHF is trying to improve safety, in part by changing opening times to daylight hours.

Israel intends for GHF to replace the U.N.-led aid network in Gaza, contending that Hamas diverts large amounts of aid from it. The U.N. denies the claim.

Thousands of people must walk miles to reach the GHF centers, three of which are in the far south outside the city of Rafah. Palestinians said the danger begins when the crowds enter the Israeli military zone encompassing Rafah.

Mohammed Saqer, a father of three who risked the trip multiple times, said that when he went last week, tanks were firing over the heads of the crowds as drone announcements told everyone to move back.

It's "like it was 'Squid Game,'" Saqer said, referring to the dystopian thriller TV series in which contestants risk their lives to win a prize. Just raising your head might mean death, he said.

He and others crawled forward, then left the main road. A shot rang out nearby and they ducked, he said. They found a young man on the ground, shot in the back. The others assumed he was dead, but Saqer felt his chest — it was still warm, and he found a pulse. They carried him to a point where a car could pick him up.

Saqer said he stood for a moment, traumatized by the scene. Then people shouted that the site had opened.

Everyone broke into a crazed run, he said. He saw several people wounded on the ground. One man, bleeding from his abdomen, reached out his hand, pleading for help. No one stopped.

"Everyone is just running to get to the aid, to get there first," Saqer said.

Omar al-Hobi described the same scene the four times he went last week. Twice, he returned empty-handed; once, he managed to grab a pack of lentils. On the fourth day, he was determined to secure flour for his three children and pregnant wife.

He said he and others inched their way forward under tank fire. He saw several people shot in the legs. One man fell bleeding to the ground, apparently dead, he said.

Horrified, al-Hobi froze, unable to move, "but I remembered I have to feed my children."

He took cover in a greenhouse, then heard the announcement that the center was open and began to run.

At the center, food boxes are stacked on the ground in an area surrounded by fences and earthen berms. Thousands rush in to grab what they can in a frantic melee.

You have to move fast, Saqer said. Once supplies run out, some of those who came too late rob those leaving. He swiftly tore open a box and loaded the contents into a sack — juice, chickpeas, lentils, cheese, beans, flour and cooking oil.

Then he took off running. There's only one route in and out of the center. But, knowing thieves waited outside, Saqer clambered over a berm, running the risk of being fired on by Israeli troops.

"It all depends on the soldiers' mood. If they are in a bad mood … they will shoot at me. If not, they will let me be," he said.

Heba Jouda said she saw a group of men beat up a boy of 12 or 13 years old and take his food as she left one of the Rafah centers. Another time, she said, thieves attacked an older man, who hugged his sack, weeping that his children had no food. They sliced his arm with a knife and ran off with the sack.

Al-Hobi said he was trampled in the scramble for boxes. He managed to grab a bag of rice, a packet of macaroni. He snagged flour — but much of it was ruined in the chaos.

At his family tent outside Khan Younis, his wife, Anwaar Saleh, said she will ration it all to make it last a week or so.

"We hope he doesn't have to go back. His life is the most important thing," she said.

Al-Hobi remains shaken — both by his brushes with death and the callousness that the race for food has instilled in everyone.

"No one will show you mercy these days. Everybody fends for themselves."

The seal of the National Transportation Safety Board is seen before a news conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 31. The pilot of a small plane that crashed near a North Carolina airport this month had raised a wheel after landing to avoid hitting a turtle on the runway, according to a preliminary report by the NTSB.Jose Luis Magana/APhide caption

MOCKSVILLE, N.C. — The pilot of a small plane that crashed near a North Carolina airport this month had raised a wheel after landing to avoid hitting a turtle on the runway, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report.

The pilot of the Universal Stinson 108 and a passenger were killed in the June 3 crash near Sugar Valley Airport in Mocksville, officials said. A second passenger was seriously injured in the crash.

A communications operator looking out the airport office window advised the pilot that there was a turtle on the runway, according to the report released this week. The operator reported that the pilot landed about 1,400 feet down the 2,424-foot runway, then lifted the right main wheel to avoid the turtle. The operator heard the pilot advance the throttle after raising the wheel, but the airplane left her view after that.

A man cutting the grass at the end of the runway reported seeing the pilot raise the right wheel to avoid the turtle, then the wings rocked back and forth and the plane took off again, according to the report. The man lost sight of the plane and then he heard a crash and saw smoke.

The plane crashed in a heavily forested area about 255 feet from the runway and caught fire, officials said. The plane was wedged between several trees and remained in one piece except for a few pieces of fabric found in a nearby stream. It came to rest on its left side with the left wing folded underneath the fuselage and the right wing bent toward the tail.

Preliminary reports contain facts collected on scene, but don't speculate on probable causes, according to the NTSB's website. Those are included in final reports, which can take one to two years to complete.

Francisco Urizar celebrates his 64th birthday with his daughters Nancy (center) and Francis (right). Since her father was taken into Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody earlier in the week, Nancy has been frantically searching for clues about where, and why, he has been detained.Courtesy of Nancy Urizarhide caption

PICO RIVERA, CALIF. — The videos circulating onsocial mediashow a yellow delivery truck, back door open with crates of tortillas and produce neatly stacked on the ground.

A green-striped U.S. Border Patrol pickup truck and an unmarked white van box in Francisco Urizar's delivery truck. Then agents in camouflage and ballistic vests swarm out of the van, bundle the 64-year-old inside and drive away.

Since her father was taken on Tuesday, 30-year-old Nancy Urizar has watched this scene play out over and over, through videos sent to her by bystanders and strangers on social media.

Now, she's back at the Food 4 Less where it happened. One of her dad's friends from the grocery store has unedited video of the entire interaction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and her father, and has offered to show it to her.

She's hopeful this new video will give her more clues about why he was arrested, and whether he could have been targeted because he "just looked like an immigrant," as she puts it.

"I was hoping to see it up close, I was hoping to see him unload," Urizar says through tears. "Because I've worked with him before and I know that his job is hard labor. So if I would have seen him unload, it just reminds me that he's doing that for me."

She leaves disappointed. The camera was too far away, and a tree blocked most of the view, but the video did give her a better sense of the timeline: agents spend three and a half minutes talking to her father before taking him away. Previously, she had been under the impression that he was pulled into the van immediately.

"Now I have more questions than I did before," Urizar says. "Was this targeted? Was this random? What pinpointed him to them, specifically?"

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NPR's request for information about Francisco Urizar's detention, or whether there was a warrant for his arrest because he is in the U.S. without legal status or some other reason.

On the same day Urizar encountered ICE, severalother enforcement operationswere happening across Eastern Los Angeles County, sparking protests from bystanders. Since mid-June, the Department of Homeland Security hasstepped upimmigration enforcement in L.A.

"I don't think that we've been too aggressive at all," Vice President Vance told reporters during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday.

"The unfortunate reality is that Joe Biden let in 15 to 20 million illegal aliens into this country," Vance said, citing without evidence acontestedstatistic.

"There is no way for us to actually get those illegal immigrants out of the United States of America without some serious law enforcement."

Urizar says her father came to the U.S. long before President Joe Biden took office. He fled forced conscription by guerilla fighters during Guatemala's civil war, leaving family behind. She says when he got to the U.S. 35 years ago, he initially applied for asylum but gave up on the process to save money on lawyers after his work permit ran out.

Some of these details Urizar says she didn't know before this week. Her dad hadn't shared much about his asylum claim with her or her younger sister when they were growing up.

After he was taken away, Urizar jokes that she "destroyed his whole house" looking for paperwork that might have his A-number on it, a unique identifier the U.S. government uses to track immigrants who have had past encounters with immigration officers. Having the number should have helped Urizar track her dad in the ICEOnline Detainee Locator System, but more than 48 hours after his arrest, the system generated zero results. Urizar had no idea where her father was being held or how to reach him.

"That's what's stressing me, all this time is passing, but what's happening to him within this time?" she asks.

"I feel guilty sleeping. I know my dad is scared, I know my dad is worried. It haunts me."

As Urizar looks out at the parking lot where her dad's truck would usually be this time of day, his friends from the supermarket keep coming up to her, offering hugs and asking for updates.

"I wish I had an answer," she says sadly. "You never think it's going to happen to you, and when it does, oh my gosh," she sighs. "It's a pain that only people who have gone through can understand."